Sonata Arctica was born in 1996 in the Finnish town of Kemi. In 1999 the band recorded a demo called "FullMoon" and so the band's trademark sound of fast, melodic and keyboard oriented heavy metal with clear and high vocals was born. And as fate would have it, the "FullMoon" demo found its way to the premier metal label of Finland, Spinefarm. Summer of 1999 brought us the first single from Sonata Arctica, "UnOpened". Two furious tracks from the single, UnOpened and "Mary-Lou" marked the arrival of SA to the world’s power metal communities.

Autumn of 1999 marked the release of their first full-length album, "Ecliptica". Soon after the release of Ecliptica, band's mastermind Tony Kakko decided to concentrate more on singing, as opposed to trying to sing and play keyboards at the same time. Mikko Härkin (ex-Kenziner) joined the band to relieve Tony from the keys and to allow the frontman to roam the stage. It introduced a new capability for Sonata Arctica - to have two keyboard players simultaneously, adding a new cool twist to the live sound.

The band’s quick rise to fame continued through the end of 1999 and beginning of 2000. Soon after the release of Ecliptica, Sonata Arctica was chosen as support band for Stratovarius' European Tour. The successful tour was followed by the release of new mini-CD “Successor”. In a small line-up change, Janne Kivilahti made a decision to depart with the band due to personal reasons. Janne was replaced by Marko Paasikoski. Year 2000 brought not only a big tour, new mini-CD, and a small line-up change, but also more media recognition. Sonata was chosen as a candidate for the "best new-comer band"-category in the Finnish Recording Industry Association’s Emma-awards.

In the spring of 2001 Sonata Arctica opened two gigs for Alice Cooper, Dio and Ratt in Monsters of the Millennium 2001 tour. Forging the metal while it is hot, the band worked on the second full-length offering from autumn of 2000 through the winter of 2001. The first single, "Wolf & Raven" was released in May '01. In July a Finnish tour kicked off along with separate gigs (including Wacken Open Air in Germany) in Europe. Then the band headed towards the Land of The Rising Sun in September. After the Japanese tour Sonata Arctica toured the Europe as a support act for Gamma Ray.

While touring, the second single from the album “Silence”, “Last Drop Falls”, was released. The Finnish shows at the end of 2001 and at the beginning of 2002 were just an appetizer for the following tour in South America. Four shows in Brazil and two more in Chile truly showed the huge popularity of the band - the crowds they met were amongst the best and wildest ever. During one of the shows the band couldn't even hear it's own playing since the crowd was louder than the huge loudspeakers!

The band’s next release was the live album “Songs Of Silence”. Recorded in Tokyo, September 4th, 2001., the European and Asian editions had completely different artworks, both made by Janne "ToxicAngel" Pitkänen who also became the exclusive artist for all Sonata Arctica releases. The Asian version was released in March while the other parts of the world got their live album in July.

After the “Silence” tour, Mikko Härkin decided to leave the band. The band announced their search for a new keyboard player and got a huge amount of applications. Since the band wanted a player who could fit not only musically but also mentally to the band, they dragged the applicants to the bar. After spending a night in a bar with the candidates, the band voted for Henrik Klingenberg.

The success continued after “Winterheart's Guild” was released in Finland where the album stayed five weeks in the top 10. In the beginning of 2004 Sonata Arctica was chosen as a warm-up band for the Japanese tourdates of Iron Maiden. Afterwards the band came back to Finland and entered the studio for the recordings of their fourth studio album, “Reckoning Night”, released in early 2005.

Now it’s time to release the first Sonata Arctica collection, aptly named “The Collection 1999-2006”. Including all the best tracks from all Sonata-albums, and two remakes (new versions of the “Ecliptica” album hit songs “MyLand” and “Replica”) this is the definitive Sonata Arctica best of that no fan should miss!

Sonata Arctica has so far got their hands attached tightly to the history of Finnish metal - and more will be done in the future!